What people are saying on Loudspeakers in Places of Worship:

You may ask what is religious noise when religion itself is a noise, in India and around the world. 😛

Noise, by standard definition, is a sound, especially one that is loud or unpleasant or that causes disturbance. Here religious noise can also be defined within the same parameters. If any sound that leaves the space allocated to any place of worship causes disturbance to others, then it is a religious noise, for the context of this article on ‘what people are saying about loud-speakers in places of worship.’

“It would be much much better if the government removes loudspeakers from every mosque and temple in India. Religion is and should be a private affair and no one needs to listen to unwanted noise, be it azaan or aarti.”

“Loudspeakers should be banned as it creates extreme noise pollution, be it a temple or mosque. I don’t know why it is happening in India but in an Arab country loudspeaker was removed because the mosque was situated near a hospital, as it was disturbing patients. So it says religion is not more important than peoples’ health.”

“Neither temples or mosques should be allowed to have loudspeakers. I don’t know whether aarti or azaan brings peace to your mind but to my mind these loudspeakers are merely causing sound pollution. A person who really wishes to listen to holy sermon would himself walk into his/her religious place. You can’t force a person into a religion.

Not my religious sentiments but my existential sentiments are hurt at the cacophony of any unwanted loudspeaker.

It’s banned to have a DJ Party beyond 11PM but the Jagran disturbing everybody whole night is fine. # IndiansLogic

P.S. : God is not deaf, if He can listen to your silent prayers, then He can sure listen to un-amplified prayers as well.”

“Loud speakers should not be allowed anywhere for any religion.This is nothing but noise pollution and public nuisance. Bajans /keerthans, namaz is melodious to the ears, but coming through loudspeakers is irritating and disturbing.”

“I am from U.P. and near my house there is a temple lane, so I can give a legitimate answer. Even if I avoid condoning the filth that hundreds of people generate by spilling off their ritual paraphernalia, I don’t consider it their right to create that level of noise pollution throughout the day. They don’t even stop it during the night.

Once, I had exams coinciding with one festival( Mahashivratri or something). It was nearly impossible to study. My dad had a heated argument with the temple workers just to make them shut the loudspeakers. It’s not one exceptional case but a norm which repeats itself numerous times every year, in every temple. There were times when I had to go to my friends house to find moments of peace. Now that I don’t live in U.P., I make sure that my vacation plans to home doesn’t include any noise making festival.”

“Loudspeakers, posters of party, political leaders in places of worship is an issue throughout India, which should be nipped in the bud. Loudspeakers in places of worship are symbols of religious superiority. It is a way of challenging “Take it down from my place of worship if you can.”

“The devout don’t need reminders to pray or hymns to be played out on loudspeakers. Religion is a private affair, let it be practiced in private. Even in and near places of worship let them induce peace and tranquility, not noise and irritation.

Being logical it is equally unfair to have to loudspeaker blaring all night during some jagrata or dushehra etc, as it is daily for azaan or during ramzan using a siren at 3 am as reminder of sunrise.

If at all, let it play inside the premises provided no noise is heard outside. Easiest bet is getting rid of all loudspeakers!”

“We had the same problem in our area. And in our case it was again a politician who had a gang of criminals, operating and controlling the group of hindu temples here. They used to have jagrata from 9.00 pm to 5.00 am, with unbearable blaring sound of loudspeaker. This politician was such a shameless fellow, that he had built his own temple inside the premices of a hospital. And the loudspeaker operated in midnight breaking all rules.

What we did in our case, was created a locality page on the internet, and discussed about this issue. Ultimately, we decided not to celebrate or join any hindu celebrations in that area. We even had a completely black Deepawali for about 4 years. No Holi, No worshipping nothing.

And now after the politician lost the MLA elections recently, with a lot of stuff available against him and his nonsense he created in the area, the new MLA atleast will think twice before doing the same thing.

But one thing after dealing with all these religious people of my own religion… I have totally lost my faith in Hinduism. It’s not the same any more. Just like every other religion nowadays, it too is full of show off, money making and terrorizing others.”

“My house is just a stone’s throw away from a small newly built temple in Kerala. I grew up listening to blaring devotional songs from the loudspeaker in the mornings and evenings. I used to hate it so much that even today, I do not go to that temple. Anyway, my family tried many means to make the temple stop playing including pleas, negotiations and even threat but to no avail. The audacity of the temple and its management kept growing. Nowadays they play devotional songs from 4 am to 6 am during a particular religious month. Finally we decided to call the police. The police came and asked the temple management to dismount the loudspeakers which they did for a day or two. After that we were back to square one. Btw, we have invested in good ear plugs.”

“In India, when anything comes even remotely close to religion the government always plays it safe. Their motto remains, never to hurt the old school religious sentiments.

Loudspeaker are synonymous with mass festival celebrations. Cometh the festivals, cometh the speakers. Banning these speakers, would hurt the sentiments of all the local gangs which “celebrate” festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi or Holi. (By hurt I mean, when will they get to Baby Doll on loud speaker!!)

Banning loudspeakers would mean all out war 😉

Sentiments are hurt, shouts of pseudo secularism start, people start venting their frustration on twitter, Arnab does a newshour debate and all hell breaks loose.

So loud speakers are here to stay! Sadly all we can do is sing wrecking god!”

“In the earlier days, festivals in temples were attended by people lived in and around the locality. But now, with better transportation facilities, functions in popular temples are attended by thousands or tens of thousands of people. So it is a necessity to deploy more speakers so that everyone will get a feel about what is going on.
During a festival in a temple you can see speakers deployed on roadsides for kilometers. It is an unwanted nuisance for all living and working around the temple. This is true with some churches and mosques as well. These are to be discouraged. When it is a religious matter people are reluctant to question it. It shows their tolerance.” – Crowly Mathew Arackal.

“Apart from asserting their identity, the next thing which happens in a divided society like ours is the signalling of power. By creating more noise, bigger tents, blocking roads, these groups and people signal their power.

So a hindu group would signal to other religious groups that they are more powerful. Like wise with other religions. A religious event offers a great opportunity to achieve both these ends.

India being a country which has a long past, with religions originating from this place, and other conquests bringing in new religions.

Religion historically has been used to assert power. Add to that low levels of literacy and unemployment leads to a majority which still adheres to such ideas and values. Ideas of “Insensitivity” and the need to assert Identity and signal power. And yes, you cannot assert power while adhering to the “sensitivity view”.

I hope access to education and employment in the long term hopefully would change these values in people.”

“The moot question is the use of loudspeakers at ungodly hours, irrespective of the place of use. The protest should be against the use of such instruments that disturbs and creates nuisance. Veiling it as improper for temples and proper for mosques is the root cause of disharmony between people of different faith.”